He graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and performed with Australian jazz musicians Vince Jones, Paul Grabowsky, Mike Nock, James Morrison, Don Burrows, New Zealandmusicians Kim Patterson, Kevin Field, Frank Gibson Jnr, Nathan Haines, Mark de Clive Lowe, Andy Browne, Roger Fox, King Kapisi and Gray Bartlett. In 1999, on an Australia Arts Council grant, he studied with saxophonist George Garzone in New York City.
Growing up in Brisbane, Australia, Hopkins had planned a career in graphic arts, but took up the saxophone at age 15. Other credits include You Am I, Kate Ceberano, Editor Kuepper, Doug Williams, Midnight Oil, Jackie Orszaczky, and once briefly performed with Sting. His debut album in 1993 Good Heavens coincided with winning the National Jazz Award at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz in Australia.
By the end of the 1990s he had recorded another four CDs, toured South East Asia, Canada and Europe and performed at jazz festivals in Montreal, Melbourne, Waiheke and Wellington.
Whilst there, he played with Jim Black and Seamus Blake, and wrote, arranged and performed with an ensemble called Phydia featuring a string quartet with a standard jazz quartet line up. In 2000, Hopkins moved back to New Zealand and began recording and compiling his 6th solo Civil Defense Hear Now After.
The first single Loophole features television presenter Russell Harrison on vocals, rapper King Kapisi, percussionist Miguel Fuentes and Hopkins on an assortment of instruments. Loophole was included on a New Zealand On Air compilation disc and features a black and white video directed by the New Zealand Independent Film Company.
Hopkins helped to start the Heineken Green Room Sessions in New Zealand with DJ Clarke and The Gordon Bennett Project.
GBP have also played at the Heineken Open, headlined in Malaysia and Singapore at several big events and released a double Civil Defense recorded at Millton Vineyards & Winery in Gisborne. Hear Now After, which was released in March 2008, features many of the musicians listed above and other players from New Zealand and Australia, including appearances by drummer Tony Hopkins, Mike Nock, Max Stowers, Dixon Nacey, Aaron Coddel, Jonathan Zwartz and Sean Wayland. Hopkins returned to Sydney where he is performing and producing music, and designing websites.
